There's nothing like a sweet, cold Thai iced tea to cool off the heat from Thai curries. Making your own Thai iced tea is economical and easy! The tea used in Thai iced tea is a red-leafed variety that only grows in Thailand; its pretty orange color is really brought out by the addition of condensed milk. The Thai people call it cha-yen and drink it hot in the mornings and cold in the afternoons.
Real red Thai tea leaves can be somewhat hard to find outside of Thailand; usually in Thai restaurants in the US, the Thai iced tea they make is made with regular black tea that has red food coloring added, so read your labels carefully. The dried tea leaves are very small and almost powdery, so a regular tea strainer won't do; for Thai tea, you need to strain it in cloth. I purchased this Thai iced tea "sock" from Amazon.com, but one could easily make their own with some cotton squares! I also purchased my Thai tea leaves from Amazon - I got this package, but discovered too late that it's not the real thing; it's black tea with yellow food coloring. It was still good.
Sometimes in Thailand they add orange blossom water, star anise, or tamarind. Anyway, Thai tea is very strong and concentrated. To make, you just brew 1 tablespoon of tea leaves in 2 cups of water and let steep for 5 minutes, and then you add sugar, condensed milk, and if you desire, tapioca balls. And that's it - Thai iced tea!
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is there a brand name of tea you recommend? can i just buy any kind of rooibos tea?
I've been able to find it at the local Asian market. I also just use a tea infuser with very small holes and it seems to work well. I find that the restaurants here in NJ tend to use whole milk or cream instead of condensed milk.
@mattiemay Red Thai tea is NOT the same thing as rooibos.
Interesting! I'd always wondered about the flavor of Thai Iced Tea until I had the sudden inspiration one day that it tasted, to me, just like the Rooibos tea we sold in the coffee shop where I was working at the time. (Here it is: http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/rooibos-red-bush-organic-fair-trade-botanical.html)
I never tried making Thai Iced Tea at home, though. (I actually don't like the flavor.)
I wonder if I just taste a similarity? Or if some restaurants substitute rooibos for real thai tea leaves? Now I'm curious.
When I was a server at a Thai restaurant we used half and half. The tea was already super sweetened by the chef. I wish I knew how she made it, but we were always shooed out of the kitchen when it was time to make the Thai tea. It was a family recipe and she intended to keep it secret!
a french press works great!
What! Tapioca balls!? Ew!
mmm oh how I love Thai iced tea!
And thank you, now I am craving Thai food. And of course, some Thai iced tea.
Tapioca balls would make it bubble tea, which is delicious! I have ordered Thai iced tea w tapiocas many a time!
Tea sock is the way to go! Good HK-style milky tea is also made with a tea sock. Makes the tea especially smooth and silky.
Ghetto-style, you can cut the foot off on a cheapo pair of pantyhose that you've bought just for this purpose (wash first!) and use that to steep the tea. Sounds gross but same great results. Just keep the hose for tea only.
Slow Lorus, why would using a tea sock make the tea especially smooth and silky? Don't you just use it because of the tea is made from finings (the lowest grade of tea) rather than whole leaves?
I do this with Vietnamese Iced Coffee (cafe sua da, I think). It's the same concept, but with coffee, of course. I cheat and use sweetened condensed milk so it's a quick process once the coffee drips.
Ugh. If you get real thai tea for this, you have to boil that sucker... it's totally not like other tea. You boil it for at least half an hour... my friends do it for over an hour, topping up the water about halfway. It just doesn't taste right, otherwise. I've tried making it with a quick steep and it's disappointing.
By the by, I've never seen the pre-seasoned thai tea leaves that weren't very small, although not as small as finings like a regular tea bag. It is a pain to filter it, hence the cotton sock thing.
There's a restaurant here that makes it with sugar and heavy cream (which is still delicious, even though it's not sweetened condensed milk delicious) and as well sweetened lime juice. Different but still tasty.
hmm. this seems overly complicated. i always just buy the thai tea leaves at any asian grocery store. make the tea to water ratio super concentrated then make it in any coffee maker.
just be careful as even the natural dye is hard to clean. never used condensed milk. just add sugar to the hot tea so its super sweet then add half and half after its cooled. watery thai tea is unacceptable.
A couple of summers ago, I was on a real Thai iced tea kick. I found a small Thai food store called Bangkok Center Grocery on Mosco St. in Chinatown (http://www.chow.com/restaurants/13640/bangkok-center-grocery). They sell the socks there too. And I added half and half to my tea and it tasted just like it was made in a restaurant.
Cha Yen is one of the best sunny afternoon drink!
I make it in a coffee maker, but definitely clean the carafe very well before and after.
Do you know where I can get authentic Thai red tea leaves? I've been looking for it everywhere and no one seems to be selling it anywhere! The closest thing I've gotten is a powder.